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Topic: How Much is Too Much? (Read 24028 times)

I dunno... 1 case here and there sells, but I've found that when things hit in any quantity, they don't sell like they did 4 or 5 years ago. Can the line thrive off stores getting only a handful of cases of any given wave? I mean, a figure recall like this year was something you used to only see after a movie line's release had saturated the market.

For me I think all this timing is perfect. A push of CW and Prequel stuff and price raises at a time when I don't have space to put stuff any more just makes it easy to cut way down on what I buy. I'm still a sucker for the Vintage so I'll pay the $10, but if I stop being a "basic figure completist" on CW and Movie Heroes (or whatever it's called) and then cut most deluxe and vehicles and BPs and etc. that I have numerous versions of, I should more than offset the Vintage fig price hike.

Thanks for giving me the nudge I needed Hasbro.

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I'm daring to do the impossible: Not hating Hasbro for everything they do.

Weren't vintage figures already $9.99? Feels like I've paid that the last 3 months, so not a big change in my opinion. I'll probably wait for sales to buy doubles, but I'm not going to change my purchasing much. The thing is, we may be paying more per figure, but we're all buying a lot fewer figures than they used to. If I buy 100 figures at $10 each. I'm still spending less on SW overall than when I was buying 200 figures at $7 each.

Now if they go back to releasing 10+ waves per year, then I might have to rethink things...

Yeah, I may not change buying habits too much - but I will be more selective. Just looking what is on the horizon for this year, I'll be primarily sticking to the Vintage Collection anyways and I'll just get more selective there. I remember when the VOTC line first came out and they were $10 - it seemed high, but at the same time the figures just seemed so awesome at the time it wasn't as bad. Plus, it was only a handful of figures a year. I've always been in favor of a slower release schedule each year, particularly now with the higher prices. I know it is always fun anticipating the next wave (and I do that too), but when I look back at the POTF2 years (or even vintage) where there were sometimes 12-20 new figures a year, just continually shipped, and that doesn't sound so bad. Granted, those were different times for toys (and action figures in particular), and those numbers may be a bit too low - but 40 or less is fine with me.

We're getting to the point where they are covering so much of what we want or wanted, I can get a bit more selective too. I found the part of the TPM wave at Target last week, and looking at the figures I missed out on I started to wonder how many of them I actually needed. Sure, the Daultay Dofine figure looks really well done, but do I care enough about him to pick him up? Not sure yet. I'm starting to get away from the "gotta have them all" with the prequel era stuff, and I just don't have the attachment to the background, "blink and you'll miss them" characters like I do with the OT. Not that I've skipped much from TVC (I'd have to look if I skipped any "new" figures, I don't think so), but if we're looking at a consistent $10 pricepoint I might start to. The higher price is more acceptable to me if we're always getting high quality, and not 60 figures a year.

I have room to cut back further, I just don't know that I see the value now is my problem... Is the one figure I get, really worth basically wasting $10? $9 was questionable... $8 was tolerable. But is any modern figure really $10? I dunno. That's where I'm at now... It's not so much the cost, as what is delivered for it.

I look around and think how Hasbro "cuts costs" in paint aps, features... Sure you get a nice articulated figure, but you see the little stuff they cut, and then they do jack up the price too... that is disappointing and makes me question if it's even worth it now.

Yeah, I see what you mean Jesse. I think you mentioned it elsewhere, but other lines (LEGO, etc.) seem to give you a little more value for your money. $10 is crazy when you think about it. I was going through everything over the holidays (and continuing too), including old receipts I had, cardbacks, figures, etc. - and seeing that I used to be able to get figures at WM for $4.77 to where we are now, that's crazy that we're up to $10 now. Granted, the figures are better for the most part, but double the price is a big jump over that time. All lines have seen that I think, but SW is where most of my money goes, so it is more noticeable there.

I'll still get the figures I really want, what this does is cut back on my army building and custom fodder. But TRU will still have their decent sales from time to time - that's when I bought custom fodder this past year. And maybe Wal-Mart and Target will still sit around $9 this year for basic TVC price.

I've sculpted and casted my own parts, $10 is still a bargain for these vintage figures.

I don't even know where the ceiling is for me to not want them at this point, but it's certainly higher than $10. And this is a drastic turnaround from a couple years back when the price hikes really started. Back then I was outraged. Now I think that if a figure cost $2 extra and you buy 50 figures throughout the year, is $100 really going to stop me from collecting these things that I love? Nah. It was just shocking then, and now I expect it.

I actually hope more people do quit, then maybe I'll see a figure on the pegs more than twice all year.

Funny unintended consequence, this is actually raising the cost of operating for scalpers too. I wonder how much more they can raise the price to actually make this worth it for them to crawl out of their mom's basement in the morning and go try to beat legitimate fans to the toy aisle. This may also contribute to figures being more readily available. Because 2011 was the worst year ever for this.

Just because Hasbro recommends a retail price of $9.99 doesn't mean retailers will follow.

Personally I've already pared down my collecting to what I consider to be definitive figures. I stopped the "one of each" habit years ago. $9.99 is more than I've been willing to pay this year but when I see 5" figures from "The Walking Dead" going for $14.99 and 6" figures from Mattel going for almost $20, it's starting to look like a bargain.

That said, isn't the current license agreement supposed to run through 2016? That gets Hasbro to the 3D release of TESB. That could explain the recent push to get new ROTJ figures tooled. They could choose to extend the license for a year or two if they think it's worth it... or not. I know they've claimed in the past that lightsabres are their biggest selling category but I'm willing to bet the action figure line comes in a close second.